WRNB - OLD SCHOOL 100.3 - Playing the soundtrack of my life 24/7

My favorite radio station (yeah, RADIO STATION) WRNB OLD SCHOOL 100.3 FM broadcasts from Philadelphia.They play Motown, disco, New Jack Swing, funk, R&B, Hip Hop all from the 70s, 80s ,90s and beyond. I love this station and it is on at least 8 hours a day, or longer, in my abode. With personalities Chubb Rock, Lady B, DJ TouchTone(the only blind DJ in the business), Tiffany Bacon, Dianna Williams, Derek Sampson, and on and on, I am fifteen again.

I don't do mp3 players even though I have one. Hell, I still have a Walkman and a record player and a tape recorder and a landline. I find it funny ha ha that companies (out to get your hipster money) are now peddling transistor radios and turn tables and old fashioned cameras that need film and typewriters. Why buy one? Ask your grandparents for the ones they have packed away in their attic, garage or basement. Everything old is new again. So glad I saved my ish. But I digress.

So, if you love old school music and don't own a radio, listen online at www.oldschool1003.com and dance around your house to some Parliament Funkadelic.

The great Octavia R. Butler - SciFi writer and one of the inspirations for my writing race into Scifi and paranormal romance

This lady's work didn't get, nor does it get, HALF the notice or praise of mediocre people writing in her genre now. And you all know who you are. Yes, I said it and the truth shall set you free! She has been an inspiration for me because she dared to insert BLACK people into Scifi writing. Not just as a writer but with her characters. The world of publishing. Ah! That colorblind (more like blind period), benevolent, happy place that was/is still chugging along, content in depicting a future without folk of darker hue in the books they buy and market. And in the ones they produce that do have POC? Big ole face palm. Decent depictions are still far and few in between.

Anyhoo, Ms. Butler wrote of people of color in her Scifi writing. Her Kindred, Parable of the Sower, Bloodchild, etc. Masterpieces all. Wow! What a concept! POC in the the future. And we were just as spectacular or regular as any Caucasian character in a Scifi book.

Thank you.

You gave me courage to pen a Black heroine who carries the paranormal series I created. You gave me the courage to place her front and center and make no apologies for it. She's not a sidekick. She's not the magic Negro voice of reason. She's not the oddly-hued placeholder for a member of a mock POC race. She is a Black, human female. Flawed as hell and human as hell while being it.

My talent is nowhere near Ms. Butler's but what I have created is mine and she gave me the power to do so.

 Thank you.

The sole current Scifi writer I can think of who is fit to wear her crown? N. K. Jemisin hands down. So, Octavia Butler may be gone but she lives on in all the Black female writers of Scifi. And maybe of paranormal.


Hey, Hollywood adapt some of her stuff.


http://blackamericaweb.com/2015/06/23/little-known-black-history-fact-octavia-butler/

info courtesy of Black America web

photo credit; http://californiacommunitycolleges.cccco.edu/portals/0/NotableAlumni/octaviabutler.jpg

Funk and Rock singer Betty Davis was just as dramatic and groundbreaking as that actress of old!

Once wed to Miles Davis, this singer was as free and as unfettered as her beautiful 'fro.

http://blackamericaweb.com/2015/06/26/little-known-black-history-fact-betty-davis/

photo courtesy of www.urbanbushbabes.com

Michael Jackson and the 6 year void that STILL can't be filled!

This is one of my favorite photos of Michael Jackson. Handsome, relaxed and before all the face- altering surgeries. Just an attractive Black man doing what made him soar. Gone 6 years today and I miss his talent terribly. My favorite MJ song? Impossible to pick but I am partial to "BUTTERFLIES." Sweet, light and heavy at the same time and full of passion. Like him.

R. I. P. James Horner - One of the best movie soundtrack composers since John Williams, Bernard Herrmann and Quincy Jones

You might not think this post has anything to with romance but guess what? It does. The man's work has been witness to many a manuscript written by me. He composed sweeping, engulfing, stimulating music. Perfect to accompany romance reading, writing or doing what behooves you while listening to evocative music. I just had to acknowledge this man because I adore, adored his talent. Movie soundtracks. I love them and own a number of them and keep searching for more (the really good ones). I write to them. I get inspiration from them. The soundtrack from "The Last of the Mohicans" was blaring when I was penning "Kindred, An American Love Story." Anyhoo, James Horner the composer of a lot of my favorites died in a plane crash yesterday. ;( The man wrote heavenly, moving music. Music that was memorable. Not just noise in the background to dialogue. I loved the Oscar-winner's work. "Braveheart" "Star Trek 2" Titanic" "The Missing" "A Beautiful Mind" "Avatar" "Legends of the Fall" "Apollo 13" "Glory", on and on. Oh man. If you like Orff, Horner's soundtrack for "Glory" will give you shivers. Oh man. Just sad to lose beauty.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/22/living/feat-james-horner-titantic-plane-crash/

JANET JACKSON! SHE'S BACK! THANK THE GODS AND GODDESSES!

This is a 49 year-old woman. Miss Jackson if ya nasty! Yes, she's had the best in life for a very long time so she can afford to look good. Yes, she is married to a guy with access to BILLIONS but still, she had a good framework. But more importantly, she's coming back in September to tour and to sing, and is back to collaborating with the masters of New Jack Swing, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. YES-S-S-S! Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, this will make Rihanna, Nicki, Igloo Australia and yes, even Queen Bey sit down and take several friggin' seats. BRING IT, JANET! SHOW THESE YOUNG'UNS HOW IT'S REALLY DONE! GAME ON!

ps Oh, and BTW, you look mah-velous, dahling. Welcome the hell back!

DEJA VU, ALL OVER AGAIN! - Instead of a bomb and 4 little girls, it's a gun and 9 adults

This post is for the kind sheep who lost their lives because they let a wolf into their trusting midst on a Bible study night. May you rest in peace.

Heads up, or should I say "Weave" up, RACHEL DOLEZAL! Look closely. These were REAL BLACK people. Take notes since you seem to like to bone up on your subject. Yes, REAL. Not spray-tanned, caricatured crimes against nature masquerading as such.
ALSO
SOUTH CAROLINA! Do the nation, you say you lurve so much, a favor. Take down that friggin' Confederate Flag from the State Capitol!


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/us/nine-victims-of-charleston-church-shooting-remembered.html?smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0